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Construction
of the Dam
Carl
Merrill:
| Now, a mucker was the one that had to clean
the rock surface before the concrete was poured. This had to
be clean enough so that you could practically eat off of it.
Well, we did this for a while, and then I got a little better
job: we went to concrete puddling. This is where you wore hip
boots, you know, and a hard hat. They’d pour the concrete,
and it was up to you to get it spread out with your feet. You
had to work it pretty good, or you’d leave rock pockets.
And you didn’t dare do these because if you did, they
had to be taken out and the space filled. This was hard work,
you know. I was back in the various tunnels all this time, and they finally started pulling the plug, I think, in the number 2 tunnel on the Arizona side. At that time they put a monorail across the top of the main tunnel; then they could bring agitators full of concrete down on the main high line and set them on trucks. The trucks would back into this monorail, and there they would be picked up. I would hook them up and unhook them, just as a hook tender, and they would be monorailed back to where they needed the concrete. Well, of course, I still wanted a better job. So I asked Virginia Steelworkers, which at the time was tying all this reinforcing steel that went into all the walls of the various sections of the power house. And I got a job working for Herb Merner, who was the superintendent. The foreman was quite a heavyset fellow; I don’t remember his name. His name was George; that’s all I remember. All of us down there, we didn’t have second names; we were always called by our first name- -usually Blackie, Whitie, or Skip or whatever it might be. A lot of them wouldn’t even tell you their names. I think they were afraid to. And so I tied steel. I went from. . .when I first went down there to the site as a laborer it was $4 a day, and then hook tender was $4.50 a day. Then I went to the steel crew at $5 a day. I finally got $5.60 a day tying steel. Well, when they finished pouring the plugs, and they started putting the penstocks in, too, why, it was up to the steelworkers to get the steel into these cradles that held the penstocks in place. All the steel was laid on top of the power house, and it was up to 2 or 3 of us to get ahold of one of these. . .oh, about 30-foot pieces of inch-and-a-quarter steel in a semicircle and get it through a small tunnel back to where they were used. Well, the journeymen $6-a-day men and the other $5.60-a-day men, myself included, were all doing the same work. So I asked Herb; I says, “I want a raise. I want to get the same money they’re getting.” He said, “Young man, I’ll pay a man for what they know, not for being you.” And so I worked on and kept pouring. [laughter] |
Copyright University of Nevada Oral History Program 2002
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| Before You Build the Dam | ||
| Controversy over Naming the Dam |
National
Archives and Records Administration